by Singapore Recalcitrant
Be that as it may, the show of opposition unity augurs well for the opposition parties in the 2011 General Election. For the first time voters can have a clear choice to vote for a PAP candidate or an opposition candidate. It is not far-fetched to say that opposition parties have built up considerable support in the present campaign and it will not be too presumptuous to say that voters may be persuaded to feel that it is opportune to elect a number of opposition candidates into Parliament to provide a check and balance to the PAP which they think has been in dominnance far too long. The PAP will still be returned to power and voters may feel that the PAP leaders’ call to voters to vote for their future and their children’s future is meaningless and superfluous.
The most significant contest that has emerged in this Nomination exercise today is the battle of supremacy between a PAP team A helmed by Foreign Minister George Yeo and a high-powered WP team headed by its secretary-general Low Thia Khiang in the Aljunied GRC. Included in the WP team are star candidate Chen Show Mao and WP Chairman Sylvia Lim whilst the PAP team comprises also a woman minister and a Malay senior minister of state.
The Aljunied electoral battle will be closely watched by the PAP leaders as well as the opposition fraternity as either way the result of this contest is going to have a profound effect on both parties, but more on the opposition. If the WP team emerges victorious, not only will it give a big boost to the opposition standing but will lift their morale. The PAP on the other hand will suffer ignominy with the loss of two ministers and a senior minister of state. It will also show that the PAP is not invincible. That is why Low Thia Khiang had kept this team combination close to his chest until Nomination Day. The fact that he has put the creme de la creme from his party to contest the Aljunied GRC shows that he is going for broke. There is an appropriate Chinese saying: To smash the cooking vessels and sink the boats (破釜沉舟）. It means the WP must succeed because the retreat route is smashed. It will be the epoch-making journey of the WP and God willing they will succeed. The wheel of history only moves forward. In the last general election, the WP lost narrowly to the PAP mainly because the Malay votes were not in their favour. The Malay ground culd be different this time and the WP should apare no effort in working hard on it.
The PAP teams which may not have a safe or easy passage could be in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, Tampines GRC, Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC and Moulmein-Kallang GRC. The SMCs in danger of falling into opposition hands may be Joo Chiat SMC and Mountbatten SMC. The PAP team in Marine Parade GRC may see its percentage of votes decreased because of the presence of the beleaguered woman candidate Tin Pei Ling. She is no match to her counterpart Nicole Seah of the National Solidarity Party (NSP). It will be a laughing stock if she causes the defeat of the PAP team in a freak election.
One thing which is incomprehensible to the common man is why the PAP leaders insist on a clean sweep of the elections without any humane consideration of political space for the opposition when the Party itself is so dominant without any fear of being toppled. One believes that this only happens in a fascist country in other parts of the world. In a real democracy, opposition voices are a feature of its parliamentary system and in fact are encouraged. As a matter of fact, the PAP is in an unassailable position and can afford to be liberal and accommodating in its dealings with the opposition.
A freak result seems very plausible.
Can see the worries and lack of confidences on the faces
of many an incumbent PAP Parliamentarians.
The daring gambles by the Incumbent Opposition
Members and the quality of their(Alternative Parties)
new candidates going into the tigers’ liar must have
frighten their opponents.
Jitters are all over the faces of those who hitherto
were lording over the people for the past many decades.
Change is coming and history will be made differently.
patriot
Hey Patriot, I hate that phrase “freak election”. It has been thrown around by the incumbent to suggest that they would win elections indefinitely, almost as if their seats in power would be guaranteed by the people constantly. But history has taught that NO nation or empire lasts forever. A country with the likes of Korea which is now split into two nations, North and South, is itself a case in point. Given that our political system is really VERY different from South Korea’s and lacks the political maturity of its parties(President Lee Myung Bak even attended the funeral of former President Roh Moo Hyun, although they were opposition parties to each other), I really just hope like you too that history in Singapore can be and will be changed this elections. We need a more gracious society even in terms of the way politics is run here, and the only way is to allow for more opposition parties in parliament.
Dear Kev;
my reading is that chances of more Alternative Party Members getting elected in the IMPENDING ELECTION is certainly better than ever before. My optimism is greatly boosted by those who volunteer to participate as candidates and those helping in the Alternative Parties Activities.
Another jab in the arm comes from the co-ordinated plan by Alternative Political Parties to avoid 3 or more corner fights, they certainly have co-operated well. All these readings have also caused much jitters in the Incumbents and some have resorted to veiled threats more than before.
ANY VICTORY BY ALTERNATIVE PARTY POLITICIANS WILL CERTAINLY BE MANDATES GIVEN TO THEM BY THE PEOPLE.
But, if victory by OPPOSITIONs means ‘freak’ to the Incumbents and they ‘would be consoled’ by using a negative and even derogatory term for said OPPOSITION VICTORY, me am more than willing to use the Term to console the Loser too.
Me fully concurs with your wish for a more gracious society as well as more Alternative Party Representatives in Parliament.
patriot
Helpful information. Fortunate me I found your website accidentally, and I’m surprised why this twist of fate did not came about in advance! I bookmarked it.